Iran has opened the new year with a gambit to pressure president-elect Joe Biden, but fears are rising that conflict could erupt instead with Donald Trump, who still commands US military might in his chaotic final stretch.
Iran announced on Monday that it was stepping up uranium enrichment well beyond the limits of a 2015 nuclear accord negotiated with former president Barack Obama — and indicated it would reverse course if Mr Biden lifted Mr Trump’s crippling sanctions after taking over on January 20.
Tensions have soared since Mr Trump walked out of the accord in 2018, and have escalated further in recent days, with the US flying B-52 bombers over the Gulf and abruptly reversing a decision to bring home an aircraft carrier.
In an unusual statement that sounded more like the White House than the Pentagon, acting Defence Secretary Christopher Miller said late on Sunday that he was keeping the USS Nimitz in the Gulf due to Iranian threats against US officials, including Mr Trump personally.
“We have a new form of deterrence now — schizophrenic deterrence. We don’t know what we’re doing,” said Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear strategy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Instead of looking tough by reversing the Nimitz’s return, “it may send the wrong signal — which is that it’s total chaos in Washington right now and if you’re going to take a shot, maybe this is the time you want to do it”.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).